Gunman reportedly shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ kills three in Belgian city

Investigators look at possible terror motive after two police officers and a passerby shot dead in eastern city of Liege; attacker also killed

Police officers redirect traffic in the eastern Belgian city of Liege on May 29, 2018, near the site where a man shot and killed three people before being shot dead by police.

A gunman in the eastern Belgian city of Liege on Tuesday shot dead three people — two police officers and a passerby in a vehicle — before he was killed by elite officers.

Prosecutors said the attacker killed the police officers with their own firearms.

The shooting occurred around 10:30 a.m. near a high school on a major street in the city, which is around 90 kilometers (55 miles) east of Brussels, close to the German border.

The French-language Belgian news site LaLibre reported that the man had shouted “Allahu akbar” before police shot him.

Police and an ambulance are seen at the site where a gunman shot dead three people, two of them policemen, before being killed by elite officers, in the eastern Belgian city of Liege on May 29, 2018. (AFP PHOTO / JOHN THYS)

The file has been passed to the federal prosecutor responsible for terrorism, one person at the Liege federal prosecutor’s office, spokesman Eric Van Der Sypt, said.

“There are elements that go in the direction of a terrorist act,” he was quoted by the French language RTL news site as saying.

But Catherine Collignon, another spokeswoman for the same office, told the AFP news agency that the attacker’s motive was not immediately clear. “We don’t know anything yet,” she said.

Media reports said the gunman shot dead two police officers at a cafe before fleeing to the Lycee Waha school, where he took a cleaning lady hostage.